England pacer James Anderson has said that he regards sledging as a 'skill' which has played an integral part in his development as a cricketer

The 31 year old bowler was involved in heated arguments with rival Australian players, Michael Clarke and George Bailey during England's second innings at the Gabba. The altercation led to Clarke being fined 20% of his match fee by the ICC after his outrageous remark was accidentally caught on the stump microphone.

Anderson admitted that the environment at the Gabba was very hostile, as difficult as he had ever endured in his playing career so far, but also said that he had no problems with teams resorting to sledging tactics on the field. "I have absolutely no problem about any of what the Australians were doing on the field. I probably dish it out more than most in the field, so I generally get it back more than most. I expect it and accept it," Anderson wrote in his regular column for Britain'sDaily Mail.

"If someone says something to me, I am not going to back down. Whether it's defending myself or standing up for one of my teammates, that is the way I play the game. But if I choose to play like that when I bowl, then I've got to take whatever comes at me when I bat. Certainly it seemed to be no holds barred from the moment I went out there.

"What happened on the field is how the game is, and not one of our players or management uttered one word of complaint. I regard sledging, chirping, whatever you want to call it, as one of the weapons at my disposal. Certainly in the past few years I think I've developed it as a skill and it has helped me take the wickets that I have," he said.

Anderson remained silentabout Shane Warne's comments on him, the legendary spinnerhad suggested that Anderson hadhimselfsparked the confrontation with his remarks on George Bailey. Warne had said that Anderson had told the short leg fielder that he wanted to punch him on his head. But Anderson denied suggestions that he had told batting partner, Stuart Broad earlier in the Test that he feared facing up to Mitchell Johnson.

"I'm not interested in claim and counter-claim of who said what to whom, but one piece of misreporting I do want to correct was that when I went out to bat with Broad at the end of our first innings, I said to him: 'I'm not jolly well facing Mitchell Johnson.' Or words to that effect," Anderson said.

"I'm afraid to say that is complete hogwash. I never said anything of the sort. Obviously, when I go in at No. 11 it stands to reason that we will have a better chance of scoring runs or batting out time if the batsman at the other end takes most of the strike. That's because, as my place in the order suggests, he is a better batsman than me. But the suggestion that I said I didn't want to face Johnson for any other reason is just nonsense."

Australia crushed England by a 381 run margin at the Gabba to go 1-0 up in the 5-match Test series. The second Test will start on Thursday at the Adelaide Oval.